The Tarslings
by High King Gil-galad
Summary: Teens Merlin and Lana are separated by their parents who have high hopes for them. Lana disobeys them, leading to grief.


**This sort of started out as a legend for a novel I'm working on but it turned into more of a Merlin fanfic. Just as a note, Lana is supposed to be Morgana, sort of. Also, a Tarsling is something I created for my novel and is basically an immortal person, who is tied to one particular forest and responsible for its well-being. Leaving can bring dire consequences. I'm still trying to work on my other fanfic but I've mostly been busy working on y novels.**

Lana and her best friend Merlin. They were inseparable as children. Often they were to be found either at Lana's house, trying to help her mother weave cloth; at Merlin's house, trying to help his parents bake bread for their bakery; or at the fort they had built where they spent much of their time pretending to be wizards and dragons and great adventurers. As Merlin and Lana grew older they fell in love. This displeased their parents who had noticed their growing affections for each other. Lana's parents had promised her to Lord Uther's son, Sir Arthur. Merlin's parents wanted him to become a wizard and wizards do not have romantic attachments. But then Merlin's parents decided that being the Tarsling of a nearby forest was just as good and the King's Forest was in need of someone.

Around this time Sir Arthur died when he accidentally killed the Tarsling of Avalon Forest while out hunting. As punishment, Lord Uther's only daughter, Lady Morgause was chosen to be the next Tarsling. He promised to reward Lana's parents handsomely if they would send Lana in Lady Morgause's place. As they had been planning to marry Lana off to his son soon anyways, they agreed. Neither Merlin nor Lana were happy with their parents' plans but they could do nothing about it because neither was over the age of majority. The forests of The King and Avalon lay in opposite directions of the village they lived in so there was no hope of seeing each other again. The two friends met one last time in their fort. There they found out that they were both doomed to the same fate.

Merlin was accompanied only by Gaius, the town's old, retired physician. He was silent and did not speak for the entirety of the journey, but Gaius worried about the look of anger on the young man's face. Lana was weeping as she left town, escorted by two knights in the service of Lord Uther. After the knights left her at the edge of the forest she found herself surrounded by elven warriors who led her to a clearing, where the ceremony was performed. At first, she did not do much and kept herself aloof from the elves. Several times she tried to escape but the elves always brought her back to their camp. Then one day a wandering wizard entered the forest and Lana, who had been intending to try to escape again, ran into him. Though he was only an apprentice, Lana asked him to teach her some magic. So he passed on to her much of what he knew, and in return, she helped find the plants he needed. And that was enough to begin with. After that Lana made no more attempts to escape and over the years, many wizards came and went. And though the elves might wonder why, they could not discover why, for Lana still avoided them. She had her own little hideout, where she spent most of her time. After a decade of this, no more wizards came. And the forest slowly grew darker and darker, but so slowly that at first the elves didn't notice. The only one who noticed was Lana, because she was the one causing it. Her hatred for those who had separated her from Merlin caused her to perform some dark deeds, but this was tempered by her love for him. This caused her to regret the things she had done afterwards and to rectify her mistakes. But a decade spent without Merlin helped her hatred take stronger root. And slowly, she began to change, and her hair darkened, to almost black, the only outward sign. When one day she summoned a caitiff, afterwards she realized what she had done and she fled. She passed through her old village of Lotney, which she had not seen in eleven years. While she had not intended to destroy Lotney, when she saw her parents, dressed in finer clothes than she remembered, she was overcome with rage and her rage exploded in a whirlwind of fire. A being person screamed in terror and pain but Lana paid no mind to them. Later, as she stood in the charred ruins of what had only a few hours previous been a village, she wept. And she screamed at the sky.

"Why?!" Lana felt like she was being torn apart with no way to hold herself together. Finally she reached the King's Forest. There Lana found Merlin at last. She called his name and he answered.

"Lana, I have missed you," Merlin said, hugging her. "But should you not remain in your forest?"

"Merlin, I can't do it!" Lana burst out. Merlin looked in concern at the normally mild-mannered Lana.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, putting an arm around her.

"All of it. I hate my parents for sending me away from you and the stupid prat for killing the Tarsling and I learned magic to try to make it more bearable without you and I wanted to use it to do good but five days ago I summoned a caitiff and I cannot remember why but I know it was on purpose and it killed some of the elves so I came here but I passed through our village and I saw my parents and then I destroyed the village with fire and I don't know what to do!" Merlin comforted Lana as cried and she lay her head on his shoulder.

"Lana," Merlin said softly. "Maybe you should return to your forest." Lana protested at first but Merlin continued. "I will come with you this time," he told her.

And so the two of them returned to the Forest of Avalon, being sure to avoid their old village of Lotney. But all was not well in Avalon. The forest was filled with twisting shadows and unspeakable monsters. Though Lana recognized the elves, none of them had any memory of her. Once they were set upon by a band of caitiff. Lana and Merlin simultaneously performed the same spell to obliterate the caitiff. Taking care not to be seen again, they drew near to the lake at the heart of the forest. There, seated on a throne draped with animal skins, was a blonde-haired woman. In front of her were at least a dozen caitiff holding flaming candles. Surrounding them were panthers and some of the raven folk.

Morya. Lana hissed her name in anger. They withdrew a ways, where Merlin asked her who Morya was. Lana explained that Morya had been the last teacher she had had.

"And she has destroyed the forest," Lana said.

It was Merlin who realized that it was because of Morya that Lana had summoned the caitiff. When he mentioned this to her, she asked how that could be, that Morya could influence her actions. Merlin theorized that Morya might have placed an enchantment on her and she begged him to break it. She was feeling compelled to return to Morya and to hand over Merlin to her. This was all that was keeping her from giving in. So Merlin placed his hands on her head and searched her mind for the source. But while finding the root was simple, breaking it was not so easy.

 _He could feel it trying to invade his mind too and he fought against it. Desperately, he tried to remember any magic that could help against this, but he could not. With no other options, he attacked the spell directly, trying to tear it apart and force it out of Lana's head. He fought against the enchantment, which had taken the form of Morya, blocking every move she made._

" _You will not win. We will not let you," Merlin said as he thrust a mental dagger into its heart. Faintly he could hear Lana calling his name. "But I already have," Morya said._

Merlin came back to himself as an arrow pierced his arm. Lana grabbed his other arm to steady him, using her other arm to point in the direction Morya's followers were coming from. Doing his best to ignore the pain, the two of them ran. By a tree with a path beneath it, Merlin paused.

"Lana, I have an idea," he said, squatting down to pick up a piece of tree bark, a bit of moss and a leaf with a small pool of water on it.

"Merlin, we have to hide," Lana said. She was standing in the middle of the tree, looking back at him.

"Trust me Lana, this will help hide us," Merlin explained. He winced as he accidentally brushed his wounded arm against the tree. "Come here. I will show you what I am doing." Reluctantly, she came and crouched beside him. She could hear the screeching of the raven folk in the distance but Merlin did not seem to hear them. He cleared a small patch of dirt and carefully arranged the three objects. He paused and then he added a small stone to the center.

"Lana, I need your help," Merlin said quietly. "If you can, could you please make a light that will not be spotted?" he asked "Please?"

Lana did not say anything but a light appeared, surrounding the small stone. Merlin began whispering, so quietly that Lana could not hear what he was saying. His uninjured arm was extended above the objects he had gathered. The screeching of the raven folk grew closer and closer and Lana was terrified that the panthers might find them. As Merlin finished, the bark, moss, leaf and stone disappeared.

"Come," Merlin said, standing up. He offered her his hand to help her up. As they passed under the tree, Merlin whispered something more and when they came out of the tree, Lana saw they were standing at the edge of a meadow full of flowers.

"Where are we?" Lana asked in wonder.

"I created a pocket world," Merlin answered. "And none can enter unless we allow them."

"Now no one can hurt us!" Lana exclaimed joyfully, twirling around the meadow. Merlin smiled as he watched her dancing. She came over to him and threw her arms around him and he hugged her back. They called their world Avalon, for the forest in which it was located. But the forest from whence they came grew even bigger and darker for Morya had allied with Mordred, the elven general from the King's Forest. And the Camershire, the land of unity, became Caitiffshire, a land of chaos, where criminals were sent.


End file.
